Patrick Stevens, tax partner at E&Y, said: ‘The outcome raises questions
about why HMRC decided to contest the case in the first place and create
enormous uncertainty for several years as the legal process was unravelling.

‘Even if there was some doubt about the correct interpretation of the law, it
had not been challenged by the Revenue for many years. It may have been far
simpler for the Revenue to change the legislation, if that was the desired
result.’

He also pointed out that because of the technical reasoning behind the
judgment, the tax benefits will only apply where it is husband and wife
shareholders and ‘not, for example, father and children’.